


Sympathy For the Devil

by NanakiBH



Category: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Genre: Banter, Friendship, Other, Pre-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-13 00:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4501359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NanakiBH/pseuds/NanakiBH
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Standing at the edge of the beginning of the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sympathy For the Devil

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this one before _Purification_ , so there was some idea-overlap. I came back to this one because I decided that I liked what I had already written of it and decided to finish it exactly the way I saw it in my head. I like writing character pieces like this. Hope you enjoy!

“ _Hoo..._ Lord Devil?”

The owl creature made his presence known, flying toward the throne. Usually, he perched himself over the back, but he was able to sense that his Lord was in an unpredictable mood, so he chose to stay at a distance, landing before him on the ground.

“Amon?” Lucifel asked tiredly, his eyes barely open, his cheek resting in his palm. He regarded the small demon with an exhausted expression and waited for him to state his reason for appearing.

“ _Hoo hoo..._ Lord, if I may be so forward- _Look at yourself,_ ” he said, gesturing pointedly with one wing at his Lord's lazy, lethargic appearance. “What do you think you're doing? You're allowing yourself to wither away. That hole in your chest appears as if it becomes somewhat larger each time you allow yourself to become like this. Please, pick yourself up. You are our dignified Master. You must be an example for all in the Underworld.”

An example?

What was he doing...?

Thinking. That was all he was doing. Thinking.

As the Devil, Lord of the eternal darkness, Lucifel had a lot of time to think. It wasn't a favorite pastime, but it was how he most often found himself; thinking despite himself, letting his mind wander around memories once forgotten. He wanted to make sure that they were never forgotten again. He wanted to stoke a fire in his chest that would burn until the day when that hole would be filled. Amon was right to think that his tendency to ruminate was a source of his suffering. It certainly didn't make him happy, but it was necessary to think about what hurt him if he hoped to keep the one he loved inside of him.

After all, without a heart, he didn't have a place to hold those feelings. If he didn't grasp them tightly, they would fly away again, and that was precisely what God wanted.

Enoch was a privilege unallowed to him.

“What would you rather I do?” he asked, crossing his legs at the ankles. “Would you prefer if I forgot about Enoch?”

Amon bristled and made an uncomfortable sound at the back of his throat. They could always sense what the other was thinking, so there was hardly a point in him asking. Lucifel knew that Amon wanted him to forget about Enoch and move along, to accept his place in the Underworld and rule it accordingly. 

“Amon.”

“ _...Ho hoo?_ ...Yes, my Lord?”

“Do you understand why I want Enoch?” he asked. His feathered companion must have known the reason, but he chose not to answer, so Lucifel continued. “I'm not going to find another human like him. I know this as an indisputable fact. The fact that Enoch was able to reach Heaven on his own without judgment means that his soul was completely pure. You can't find that sort of purity among humans these days. Even the children are touched by sin. You demons are attracted to the purity within humans, and the desire you have to corrupt them is what sustains you. Honestly, in my opinion, that corruption is what keeps the world going 'round, but it's lowering the quality of our energy source, so to speak. Do you understand?”

Amon hummed, a thoughtful _hoo_ that echoed in Lucifel's hollow throne room. “ _Hoo hoo..._ I see. The strong purity that Enoch possesses would sustain you for a long time. It's no wonder you wish to corrupt him. But what would you plan to do after you've corrupted him? Why fixate so heavily on one human?”

“Amon...” Lucifel sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between two of his clawed fingers. “Amon, why must you disappoint me like this? I thought we understood each other. I don't plan to corrupt him. In fact, I _can't._ As Metatron, Enoch is incorruptible.”

With a sound like a sigh, Amon lifted off the ground and flew to him, taking his place on the top of his throne. “ _Hoo..._ I'm not sure I understand the appeal... If you can't watch his descent into darkness, then why are you interested in him? Assuming you get your hands on him, what do you plan to do with him?”

“I just want him by my side.”

That answer came embarrassingly quickly to his lips and it was out before he could even reconsider his choice of words. But it was the fair truth, and, despite what his deceptive nature implied of his character, he valued the truth.

“Enoch knows what is truly right. If he were here...”

Yes, if he had Enoch, they could rise above Heaven – create a new Holy Order. Enoch was a good guy, so he would always listen to God, but Lucifel knew that even Enoch could see the inconsistencies between God's Word and his actions.

God wasn't good.

Lucifel would never delude himself and believe that he was anything better, but he knew who was. Unfortunately, being the gentle, loyal person he was, Enoch would never dream of rebellion. He would never dream of standing above God. He would much sooner fall to his knees and beg forgiveness if the slightest thought of such a thing entered his head, and yet-

“It still bothers me,” Lucifel said softly. Removing his horned crown, he shook his head to loosen his hair. “Why'd he try to help us at the last second? Went and got himself hurt...”

He should've left the crown on. Amon's beak jabbed the top of his head, and he yelled out loudly enough for all the dead to hear. The owl's feathers rustled and he gave a hooting laugh at his pain. “ _Ho ho hooo._ You're seriously asking that? You, the one who's so head over heels, doesn't understand why Enoch might've tried to help you despite his better judgment? Now that's a hoot.”

“How dare you. You should burn for a joke like that. I forbid you from making any further owl puns. You aren't even an owl!” He grabbed for him, but Amon took off, flying out of his reach.

Growling, Lucifel slumped back into the throne and watched him with a searing glare. This was the sort of company he had to put up with now. Things were arguably worse in Heaven, but he felt inexplicably alone without Enoch's presence. As far as demons went, Amon was a nice guy, but Lucifel wasn't sure that he could consider him a friend, even after the countless time they had spent together in the Darkness. Maybe they were... He wasn't used to having friends.

" _Hoo hoo._ You should try to put your mind on other things for a while. Why not check on the human world? I know how much you enjoy their inventions. I think they've reached a significant stage of evolution on their own in their current year."

It sounded kind of Amon to make a suggestion like that, but Lucifel knew that he was just trying to get him to forget about Enoch. He feared what might happen if his memory began to slip. After recovering some of his memories from Izomeron, he probably didn't have to worry as heavily, but the hole was still there. Returning that fragment of himself hadn't closed the wound. He had the feeling that the key to his recovery - his last missing piece - rested with his fragmented old friend.

"I see what game you're playing," he told him, standing. "I'll go, but only because I need to stretch my legs. And because I'm tired of this appearance."

The demons and the damned respected his fearsome, monstrous appearance, but it wasn't comfortable. Ideally, he would wear no clothing at all, but if he had to, then something fashionable felt in order. He hadn't worn jeans in a long time, not since the last time he went to the surface, when he assumed the guise of 'Force'.

Looking down at himself, he recalled his old attire and snapped his fingers. At once, he was in his Edwin jeans and sheer shirt, but something felt amiss. His hair had become quite long. He sort of liked it, but it had mostly grown to such length due to laziness.

"What year is it in the human realm? How do they wear their hair?" he asked, hoping that Amon had an eye for such things.

Amon silently appraised his master's looks. " _Hoo hoo._ It's the year 2015, and I can tell you that no one wears their hair that long – no man, at least. If you don't wish to change it, you could always make your features appear more feminine."

"Still holding on to their perceptions of masculinity and femininity, are they? Let's blame that one on God. He should've created them fairly like the angels. So many unnecessary conflicts begin over the sexes, don't you think? On one hand, this is in our favor, on the other hand... We're doing his job, taking care of the weak-minded humans who stray from his 'path'. Whatta farce.” He sniffed, lip curling back over sharp teeth. “And _I'm_ the enemy? Because of him, I feel like I'm only capable of anger and sadness. Humans don't _know_ what eternal suffering is.”

“ _Hoo ho._ My Lord,” Amon interjected politely, returning to settle on the arm of his throne, “it sounds like you're losing your focus.”

“Don't patronize me, bird.” He was half-tempted to light the end of his tail on fire, but he had other things to concern himself with. He didn't like playing nicely with the other children, but it wouldn't be good if Amon got tired of him. Then he'd really have no one who understood him.

Glancing at Amon, he ordered him to follow and gave him only a split second before he warped from the throne room to his chambers. He didn't want to change his hair until he had a look at himself in his mirror.

...But the first glimpse he got of himself made him wish that he hadn't looked at all.

The outfit was the same as he remembered, but the gaping hole was an unsightly problem. Even from behind, the hole was visible through his sheer shirt. No matter what form he took, it was always there; inescapable.

Noticing Amon from the corner of his eye, he turned and watched as he flew to retrieve a magazine that looked like it had been unceremoniously dropped on the floor. Lucifel didn't remember putting something like that there, though.

“ _Hoo._ I got this for you the last time I went to the human realm, but you refused to pay attention to me. I thought you might like to have a look at what's new before you go up.”

“ _You_ went to the human realm? That's unexpected.” Regardless, he took the proffered magazine and sat down on the floor with it for a moment. After leafing through it briefly, he realized that their current year wasn't very distant from the time he traveled to when he acquired his cellphone. He might've even been behind the times, and that really said something about his current state. And the current state of the human world.

What had once been a possible future as seen by the chaos caused by the Grigori had come to exist in the prime timeline. God had intended to wipe them out with a flood to prevent them from reaching such a level of depravity. Their purity was all but gone.

“I've been here a really long time, haven't I?” Lucifel said aloud, the realization hitting him suddenly. Every day felt long, but they blended into each other seamlessly when he was unable to see the sky. Time in Hell was an endless, indistinguishable eternity. “A little over two thousand years ago, the humans predicted their own end. Do you think that time's coming soon? Doesn't it seem like it's time for us to rise up again?”

The legion would've agreed in a heartbeat, ready to jump at any excuse to revolt against God. Amon wasn't just any demon, though. Lucifel trusted him to think carefully and offer his sound thoughts on these sorts of matters. At the moment, he didn't look very excited about the prospect of a revolt. What he was asking for was the apocalypse, and it bothered Lucifel that Amon wasn't immediately agreeing with him.

It had been so long...

He wanted things to change. He wanted everything to end already.

That way, he and Enoch...

A new, better Heaven could be created. He wasn't worried about the humans – only for himself. He didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to stay in Hell without Enoch before the darkness and the presence of vileness finally turned him into the person the humans thought he was.

“Amon... I don't know how much longer I can take this.”

Amon offered him a concerned look and let a moment of silence pass before he flew up and lightly tapped him on the head to get him moving. “ _Hoo..._ Wait here a second. I'll find you something that will hide the hole. Do something about your hair already, will you?”

He appreciated him more than he had ever admitted. The reason he probably couldn't consider Amon a friend was because he thought he didn't deserve anyone. Despite that, he continued to desire Enoch's presence, his missing heart aching for the warmth that came when he was near. He missed that so badly. If he could get that back, then he promised himself that he would tell Amon how grateful he was for him. By then, maybe he'd be a better person; someone strong enough to say it.

Picking himself up off the floor, he returned to the mirror. As he looked at his reflection, he bit his tongue to hold back the horrible things he wanted to say to himself. Once upon a time, he had been an angel, so he couldn't believe that he had let himself get to that point, looking so worn and haggard. There were even some dark circles under his eyes. It was pitiful.

Feeling the need for a drastic change, he looked around his chambers until his eyes fell upon what he had been looking for – a short sword with a clean, glittering edge. It had been carelessly stowed next to the armoire that Amon was rooting through, there since it had been given to him as a gift from one of his infamously villainous residents. When he noticed him picking it up, Amon realized what he was going to do with it and reasonably asked why he planned to cut his hair in such a crude manner. Though Lucifel's fingers lacked much of the power they used to hold, he could still easily snap them to change his hair if he wanted.

“I want to do it myself,” Lucifel said. “I want to change things with my own hands now. This is a small place to start, but at least I'm starting somewhere, right?”

Amon watched silently as he held his hair together in one hand and readied the blade with the other. Locking eyes with himself in the mirror, he jerked his wrist and the blade sliced through. His hair loosely fell around his face, cut just above his shoulders, and he let go of the remains in his other hand, letting the strands fall to the floor with a whisper.

There was something satisfying about seeing an unnecessary piece of himself cut away. The more things he cut away and left on the floor, the more room he would have inside of him to welcome back the warmth he was longing for.

“What do you think?” he asked Amon, keeping his eyes on himself. “No, wait, hold on,” he said, having an idea. Setting the sword down, he ran his fingers through his hair to free any stray strands, then parted it at the side and pushed his hair behind one ear. Proudly, he turned back around to him. “There. Tell me it's good.”

“ _Ho hoooo_. You look very handsome, my Lord. I found you just the thing to wear, too. Come have a look.”

Right. Amon didn't exactly have hands. He had little lizard paws, but those weren't strong enough to lift anything from the armoire without assistance. Lucifel went over and pulled out the pieces that Amon had chosen for him and was surprisingly pleased by his selection. He disrobed as quickly as he could, but he refused to use his powers to remove them. Once he had the last of it off, he felt like he could breathe again and lamented that he needed to put on new clothes. If only the humans hadn't become ashamed of their own bodies, he could've casually walked among them in his natural form.

At least he looked really good in human clothing.

The black shirt that Amon had picked was dark enough to hide any sign of the hole, and wearing another shirt underneath that one helped to keep the fabric from dipping in and becoming concave around his chest. With a black pair of slacks and a suit jacket, the look was complete. With how pale he looked, the dark outfit made him look grim, but it was a fitting look for the one who was supposed to be the Devil. It was an alluringly fragile yet fearsome appearance.

“I like it,” Lucifel said, admiring his reflection in the full-body mirror, playing with the straight edge of his hair between his fingers. “What do you expect me to do in the human realm, though? I don't mind going up to people-watch and make them lustful with my appearance, but... Eh. I want to start something, but I don't have any plans yet, and it wouldn't be wise to act rashly. I don't want to make any moves without preparation.”

“ _Hoo hoo_. That's fine, my Lord. Assess the situation with your own eyes. Get a feel for what the people are like right now. Find out what the darkness in their hearts says about the state of the world.” He leisurely rested himself on one of the pillows on Lucifel's floor and tucked his wings against his back. “ _Hoo~_ I have the feeling you may even run into someone interesting.”

Lucifel stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate, but Amon didn't say anything further.

“Is that a premonition?” he asked.

Cheeky little demon, he kept his beak shut and pretended to fall asleep.

Lucifel watched him for a few more seconds, but Amon didn't even stir. Finally deciding that he should leave, he looked around the room. “Where'd I put my phone?” he wondered aloud.

“ _Ho._ Behind you.”

“Behind...?” Turning around, he tried to figure out where he was talking about. He carefully toed aside a few of the pillows on the floor before he took another step and felt extremely glad when he unearthed it from beneath one of them. “You're a lifesaver, Amon,” he said as he pocketed it, thankful that he hadn't accidentally stepped on it. Since he'd saved his phone, he wasn't going to bother Amon about his sass.

It was too bad he couldn't take him up to the human realm with him. The last time Amon went up, he must have made himself invisible. When Amon tried to assume a human appearance, he could only go as far as the general shape. His limbs would be correct, but his face... The owl head stayed. If any humans saw someone who looked like that, they would either think he was wearing a great costume or they'd scream “demon!” and run away. It was because of God that they needed to worry about the way that people perceived them. They weren't their enemy, but there was no doubt that they wouldn't understand them.

The humans believed that demons only existed to hurt them.

“Alright. I guess that's it. I'll be back soon,” Lucifel promised.

Amon cracked open an eye. He had a beak, so he couldn't smile per se, but Lucifel could tell that he was trying. Unable to resist, he returned for a second and ruffled the feathers on his head, then, attempting to give him a smile of his own, he disapparated.

 

The human realm was just like he remembered. Rather, it was just like how things had been when he had used God's power to travel through time. Amon was right. For them to have evolved that far, for their technology to have progressed that rapidly...

Everything that Enoch had done – had all of that been for nothing?

Perhaps God had been trying to delay the inevitable. If the Grigori had been left unchecked, who knew what sort of state the world would've been in by now, but it was clear that some of their influence must have remained in the world. If things continued at that pace, they would reach the point where they could transcend their own plane of existence.

Hell was struggling to become Heaven, but so was this place. The humans had their own gods now and had totally forgotten who the one true God was supposed to be. This world was nowhere in God's plans, and He was nowhere in theirs.

Interesting.

At the least, it meant that they would be heading toward the apocalypse any day unless God finally decided to intervene. The human realm obviously hadn't seen a divine intervention in a long, long time, though. It made him wonder what was keeping God, why He wasn't doing anything to save them from becoming more corrupt. Was He just belligerently trying to flood Hell with vile souls? If that were His plan, then Lucifel planned to turn that into their advantage. From this point on, he was going to try to recruit every new arrival to the legion.

But first, his phone needed an upgrade. And he knew just the place.

It was hard to decide whose opinions he wanted to hear (He really didn't want to hear any of them, but he could muster some patience for the sake of gathering information.) but he knew where he could get an upgrade. The whole world relied on cellular phones now. America and Japan were bound to be at the head of the curve, but America was going to be the one with the wildest thoughts.

Thus, after effortlessly projecting his astral body through space, he arrived in the human realm; New York, at a certain popular mall. No one seemed to think anything of the handsome man who mysteriously appeared in the crowd. The few eyes he caught all stared for a palpable moment, then looked away like they realized that they shouldn't be staring at a stranger. They were just humans, yet a part of him welcomed any sort of attention. For a long, long time, no one was even able to see him. Even in his angelic glory, it was a miracle that Enoch had been able to perceive him at all. That was the strength of his heart. Now, if _any_ human could see him, a being who had been steeped in the Darkness for centuries, that had to be a bad sign.

Well, that was their problem. Fortunately, that meant that it was also God's problem and God's problems were no problem at all to Lucifel.

The phone store was packed. For some reason, it attracted more attention than any other store in the mall. Apparently there were a lot of things he had been missing out on because he'd failed to upgrade his phone. There were all kinds of new 'applications' and things that he only had the vaguest knowledge of. The newest model was even capable of playing a lot of very complex games and could store far, _far_ more data than his previous phone. Despite the crowd and the long wait to be seen, he was able to cleverly wink and charm his way to the front of the line and was helped right away.

The overly-exuberant young man who helped him was kind enough to show him all the differences between the new model and his old one and even gave him a few game recommendations. Apparently there was a game the Japanese were obsessed with where you collect cards of young girls and play repetitive rhythm stages with them. It sounded awful, but the representative promised that he would get addicted to it.

He needed more distractions in Hell, so he hoped that he was right. Even if he hated it, it sounded like there were a thousand other games he could play on it now.

As they waited for the transaction to be completed, waiting for another representative to return from the back room with a new phone, Lucifel saw that as an opportunity to find out about more than just the new phones. The young man appeared hesitant to talk about anything at first. Lucifel gathered that there was a presidential election on the horizon, and he was curious to find out what kind of person the humans wanted leading them. Realizing that Lucifel wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily, he'd tried to escape the conversation by admitting that they weren't allowed to talk about their thoughts on things like that with their customers.

Lucifel was surprised that he'd been able to resist talking. He'd seemed awfully comfortable around him until it came to that, so he wondered what made things change. However, it only took a little more charm and the man's lips were unsealed, and all of his thoughts came passionately spilling from his lips.

The humans were in trouble indeed.

The other employee returned from the back with the new phone, but the one who was assisting him kept talking. Like the other people who worked there, he seemed like he was the quiet, thoughtful type, but he was sheltering some desperate thoughts about the world that he was unable to share. It was fear that kept those thoughts inside. There were too many people with radical beliefs in this world now who held them as irrefutable truths, who'd go as far as to kill if another disagreed with their wild and irrational thinking.

The moment Lucifel mentioned God's name, the young man had looked away with a bitter smile on his face and laughed. He said that God had to be dead.

The way he said it, it was like he hoped that God was dead. If He weren't dead, then it was too difficult for a human to believe that He'd abandon them like this.

Lucifel hoped that too. He hadn't been to Heaven in so long, he honestly didn't know. Once, there had been a 'God', but even Lucifel found it unbelievable that He would leave them in this state.

It was an interesting thought, though... Maybe all of their hoping and cursing in Hell had finally paid off and killed Him indirectly. It was probably impossible, but the thought made him smile for a second.

After that, the representative helped him set up his new phone wordlessly, like he didn't even remember that he'd just spilled his guts to a stranger. They could see him, but he was still forgettable; his presence too strong or their minds too weak. Lucifel felt certain that he'd be forgotten as soon as he left the store.

There probably wasn't going to be much more that he could extract from strangers that he couldn't get by reading and watching the news from his phone, but he decided to take a walk around anyway. Like Amon said, a lot had changed, and, even if he didn't like humans, he did like their things, so it was entertaining to check out the stores. He made sure to keep Enoch at the back of his mind so that he wouldn't forget and tried his best to enjoy himself.

Thinking that it might be time to finally get a new vinyl umbrella, he started heading toward one of the department stores. On his way there, he noticed someone familiar. She was standing in between two women's clothing stores, absently checking her phone. She looked a little different than he remembered since the last time he ran into her, but there was no doubt in Lucifel's mind that she was who he thought. Distracted by whatever she was doing, she didn't notice his presence until he was standing right in front of her. Realizing that someone wanted her attention, she glanced up and nearly lost her balance when she realized who was standing before her.

“Galiel,” he said warmly, “what are the odds of running into you in a place like this?”

This had to be what Amon had predicted.

“You're...” She stared at him, her eyebrows drawn and her hands clenched around her cellphone, yet she was unable to come up with a name.

Like he thought, she must have lost her memories; that strange side-effect of reincarnation. Once she fulfilled whatever mission she was on, she'd remember herself and everything from her past. He hoped that she would also remember him and this moment. He didn't want to let her go without leaving an impression.

She didn't remember him, but she was still a Heavenly being, so she could tell that there was something that made him different from everyone else. As she fought to figure out why this stranger knew her name, he stepped aside and gestured for her to walk along with him. Keeping her phone close to her chest, she followed, keeping a cautious eye on him.

“This must be what they call 'the Devil's luck',” Lucifel remarked, laughing. She didn't seem to find it as amusing as he did. It was a bit on the nose, but it did the trick. Her eyes widened as the realization hit her and she came to a sudden halt. “Now, now. Don't just stop in the middle like that – people are going to run into you.”

True enough, a couple teenage boys knocked into her from behind and aggressively told her to watch herself before walking around her.

She brushed off her shoulder and started walking beside him again, her lips sealed.

“I'm not someone you have to worry about,” he promised. “I'm just glad to see a familiar face. I haven't been out in a long time. Looks like things are going to Hell without me anyway, though. I don't know what you're here for this time, but I just came to get my phone upgraded. Did you know how many apps there are now?” he asked, excited to share. She just looked at him strangely, still silent, so he cleared his throat awkwardly and continued. “Anyway, the guy who helped me with my phone said that God is dead. What's up with that, right?”

For the first time, he got a real reaction out of her. Her eyes widened and she gasped in concern.

“Did something happen, Galiel?”

She lowered her eyes, looking at her feet as she walked. “I don't know. I'm sorry. I can't remember. That's the truth.”

“Nothing?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing yet. That's why I have my phone with me.” As soon as she admitted that her phone was the lifeline tying her to Heaven, she held it even more tightly, like she was afraid that he might try to take it from her. Seeing his look of disinterest, though, she audibly let out a breath and lowered her hands to her sides. “Sorry again. You're right. I don't know why, but there's a part of me that feels like I can trust you, even though I know who you are.”

“You know _what_ I am. Not who,” he reminded her.

“Right. I know you're...” She looked around for a second as if it mattered whether anyone were listening. “I know you're the Devil, but that's all I know. I haven't thought about you much, so I didn't know what to expect, but Michael told me that I should be careful.”

Lucifel had to laugh. “God, what does he think I'm going to do? Kidnap you?”

She didn't find that as funny as he did, but his awkward joke wasn't enough to make her run away yet.

“Hey, Galiel...”

She glanced at him from the corners of her eyes.

“You know, things can't continue like this. I don't know what you were sent here to do, but I get the feeling that it wasn't to fix the situation. I know how powerful you are, but this is too big for one little girl to handle all by herself. Do you mind telling me what your mission is?”

He thought that she might try to dodge his question, but she lifted a hand to point at some seats in the middle of the mall and said that they should sit. There were already a few people sitting there, but there were still two available seats. Galiel sat down in one of them, and Lucifel chose to perch himself on the arm of it. She gave him another long-suffering look, but he didn't feel like moving.

Crossing her legs, she straightened her skirt and looked up at him. “I'm here to purify some unclean souls – specific ones...”

Purifying them... He wondered if she understood what that meant, but he saw the answer in the complicated twist of her brow. Galiel and the Archangels held the power of purification; the same process that he and the demons in Hell handled through years of punishment in the Darkness. Now that there were so many vile souls in the human realm, it was a job that could only be handled by his thousands of demons. It was a dirty job made dirtier by the cruel truth of its nature.

Any person who was purified would completely lose their sense of self. They would lose their free will and become blank canvases. They would relinquish themselves entirely for the chance to live in Heaven.

The way he saw it, that was no prize. The humans who believed in God thought that Heaven was their ideal resting place, but they had no idea what it would really be like for them.

Galiel was a piece of Enoch. It was bad enough that God had made Enoch hunt and imprison his old friends. At the time, Lucifel had laughed at the Grigori's suffering, but it wasn't as funny now that he was imprisoned along with them. Now, he couldn't imagine Enoch being forced to purify and eradicate the hearts of human souls.

She wasn't Enoch, but this wasn't a job she should be performing.

He didn't want this for her.

“Who are they?” he asked.

“You want me to give them to you?” she asked, one step ahead, predicting what he was about to ask.

Whoever they were, for God to have specifically targeted them for purification, they must have been exceptionally vile souls – or exceptionally free-thinking. If the apocalypse were approaching, God wouldn't want souls like them falling into the hands of the other side.

He nodded. “I know it sounds cliché, but I want you to leave them to me. Let me handle it.”

She laughed, but she didn't sound disturbed by his request. “Doesn't 'making a deal with the Devil' mean that we have to be - _you know_ – making some kind of deal? Do you expect me to hand them over to you without getting anything in return?”

“I didn't know that angels were allowed to make deals under the table now.”

“Who said I'm dealing under the table?” she said, giving him a playful wink. “I never said that I was agreeing to any kind of deal at all. I know that I might end up in a whole lot of trouble if they find out that I didn't purify those souls. Or... _when_ they find out. I'm sure it wouldn't go without their notice. But the thing is, that part of me that remembers you is telling me that I should trust you... Like I'm going to regret it if I don't. It's strange.”

The way she talked about that 'part of her' made him curious. He wondered whether she remembered Enoch or if she could feel him even if she couldn't remember. “Galiel,” he began, unsure of what to say once he opened his mouth but certain that there was something he wanted to ask. “...You want him to be happy, don't you?”

“How presumptuous of you. It sounds like you're implying that you're his sole source of happiness.”

“So you remember him?”

She blinked slowly and glanced around, searching her memory; confused. “Wh... Who?”

Getting off the arm of the chair, he came around in front of her and knelt down and looked up at her. The holes in her memory were distressing her, so she locked eyes with him as if it were the only way to anchor herself to the present moment.

“God has abandoned this world,” he told her, now feeling sure and frighteningly confident in that assertion. “It won't be a flood this time. It could happen just like the humans predicted; the whole world will be wiped clean and every soul will be annihilated. Only the souls of the purest faithful will be taken up, but I'm sure you've already seen what a lack of pure souls there is in this world. I admit that I'm not the humans' biggest fan, but how does that make you feel, knowing that millions and millions of people will simply be erased from existence?” He gestured around them. “These people. Everyone here. Can you really continue to do His work knowing what He plans to do?”

Galiel looked visibly shaken, her eyes wide. “But... What about the souls I'm meant to purify? Why am I doing that at all?”

Giving a sigh, Lucifel stood back up and folded his arms over his chest. “I don't know. I'm only making guesses. Who knows what He's thinking? Maybe it won't happen all at once. Maybe He's just trying to spare the ones He wants for Himself. Maybe He's planning to raid Hell and take back the souls who haven't wanted to leave... That's probably it. He can't let me keep anything. He doesn't want me to be happy.”

“Why do you sound so sure that He's going to do anything at all?” she asked, straightening her back, holding her head up.

“Shouldn't He? You weren't around back then, but that part of you must also remember what it was like when the Grigori corrupted the human realm. We're nearing the point where intervention is going to be necessary again – unless He's alright with letting the world turn into a new pit of darkness. I'd be okay with that. More for me. I've already got a sizable army of my own, so if He wants to start a fight, He can come at me anytime. We'll fuck Him up.”

“Th-that's God you're talking about,” she weakly reminded him.

Yes. And he meant every word that he just said. He wasn't going to stay down anymore, hanging his head. They were going to succeed in their impossible fight this time, and they were going to win by joining hands with the 'enemy'.

That was why he found her. That was why Amon had that premonition, why he was called the great reconciler.

Lucifel extended a hand to her.

“You wanted me to make this a proper deal. Well, here's my proposal: whatever happens, I will be on your side, whichever side you choose. I will protect you and Enoch.” He paused for a second, thinking. “No. That's just a promise. As long as he's conscious and can make his own decisions, I'll follow whatever order Enoch gives me.”

She stared at the proffered hand without taking it just yet. “What if he wants to side with God?”

Inside, though his heart was invisible, Lucifel felt almost certain that Enoch would choose to follow him and protect the path of personal judgment and free-thought. Having been burned so badly before by the people he thought he could trust, though, there was a part of him that couldn't be one hundred percent sure. That one little part frightened him, but he wanted to believe that this meeting happened for a reason.

He wanted to believe that he and Enoch could stand beside each other again.

“Whatever he chooses,” he said.

The hand that clasped his had a familiar warmth.

Lightly, she tightened her grasp as she looked at him. “This all sounds kind of scary, but... I trust you, Lucifel.”

Hearing someone say that name made him ache a little, but it also made him smile uncontrollably. “So you _do_ remember both of us.”

She looked surprised by the memories that snuck back without her notice, but an affectionate smile that looked just like Enoch's appeared on her face in the next second.

With a voice worth his trust, she promised that she would always remember him and handed him the phone that she had acted so protective of a while ago. Quickly, he used it to copy the names of the ones she was seeking into his own phone. As he was about to return the phone to her, she grabbed his from his hand. Before he could even ask what she was doing, she'd already placed her number in his contacts.

She stood up as well, her legs somewhat shaky. “I can't believe what I just agreed to,” she said to herself, letting out a quiet, nervous laugh.

“Don't worry about it,” Lucifel told her, already beginning to walk away. “Next time we see each other, this will probably be a very different place.”

Perhaps, if his luck could combine with Galiel's, then maybe even Heaven could change.


End file.
